Australian comedy
Australian comedy refers to the comedy and humour performed in or about Australia or by the people of Australia. Australian humour can be traced to various origins, and today is manifested in a diversity of cultural practices and pursuits. Writers like Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson helped to establish a tradition of laconic, ironic and irreverent wit in Australian literature, while Australian politicians and cultural stereotypes have each proved rich sources of comedy for artists from poet C. J. Dennis to satirist Barry Humphries to iconic film maker Paul Hogan, each of whom have given wide circulation to Australian slang.
Vaudeville larrikinism in the style of Graham Kennedy and parochial satire and self-mockery has been a popular strain in Australian comedy, notably in the work of such as Norman Gunston, The D-Generation, Roy & HG and Kath & Kim. Acclaimed Australian comic character actors have included John Meillon, Leo McKern, Ruth Cracknell, Geoffrey Rush and Toni Collette. Sardonic political satire like that of The Chaser and social and cultural commentary provided by broadcasters like Clive James and Andrew Denton has been another hallmark. Multiculturalism has also contributed to a diversity in Australian comedy, from the work of migrant comedians like Mary Coustas and Anh Do to Aboriginal performers like Ernie Dingo. Australian stand-up comedy has a wide following and the Melbourne Comedy Festival is a major international comedy event.
Australian sense of humour
The "Australian sense of humour" is often characterised as dry, irreverent and ironic, exemplified by some of the works of performing artists like Barry Humphries and Paul Hogan and by character creations such as mock-talk-show hosts Norman Gunston and Roy and HG. Australian humour was influenced by the convict origins of European Australian history. It is today expressed in Australian slang as well as throughout Australian film, literature, and other media. While outback and "bronzed Aussie" stereotypes are a rich source of Australian comedy, so are the urban rituals and exuberant cosmopolitanism of much of contemporary Australia, as expressed by auteurs like Baz Luhrmann in the 1993 film Strictly Ballroom. The quirks of Australian multiculturalism have also provided fodder for comedy: from They're a Weird Mob about an Italian immigrant adapting to Sydney life; to the works of Vietnamese refugee Anh Do and Egyptian born Akmal Saleh; the Guido Hatzis parody and Nick Giannopoulos' Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos about second-generation Australian Greeks returning to their ancestral home. Actor Ernie Dingo is perhaps the best known Aboriginal Australian comedic performing artist. In recent years, comedy duo Hamish & Andy have dominated radio ratings with cross-medium programming showcasing larrikin ideals and spirited curiosity.Formative years: early Australian comedy
While the convicts of the early colonial period helped establish anti-authoritarianism as a hallmark of Australian comedy, Watkin Tench, an officer of the marines on the First Fleet, reflected on the irreverent humour of his friends among the Aboriginal Australians of Sydney.Influential in the establishment of stoic, dry wit as a characteristic of Australian humour were the bush balladeers of the 19th century, including Henry Lawson, author of The Loaded Dog. His contemporary Banjo Paterson contributed such classic comic poems as "Mulga Bill's Bicycle", "The Geebung Polo Club" and "A Bush Christening".
Early novelist Joseph Furphy wrote in the Australian vernacular and the poet Dennis reflected a sense of Australian identity and humour in the Australian vernacular – notably in "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke", which chronicles the courtship and marriage of a larrikin called Bill and his girl, Doreen: including a trip to the theatre: "This Romeo 'e's lurkin' wiv a crew – A dead tough crowd o' crooks – called Montague". The Dad and Dave series about a pioneer farming family was an enduring hit of the early 20th century.
Australia's ANZAC troops of World War I were said to often display a streak of irreverence in their relations with superior officers and dark humour in the face of battle. Books like Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding use humorous anthropomorphism to transform the animals of the Australian bush into a classic work of Australian children's literature.
Vaudeville stars like Roy Rene 'Mo' toured with the Tivoli Circuit prior to the arrival of radio. Mo, in baggy trousers and battered top hat and using Australian English catchphrases like "Strike me lucky" and "Don't come the raw prawn with me" became Australia's most successful variety star and began performing on radio in 1946. The arrival of television in 1956 assisted in the demise of the large vaudeville theatres and a switch to small venue "comedy revues" – notably the Melbourne University Revues.
Modern Australian comedy
Character creations
The satirical character creations of Barry Humphries include housewife and "gigastar" Dame Edna Everage; and "Australian cultural attaché to the Court of St James's" Sir Les Patterson, whose interests include boozing, chasing women and flatulence. Edna made her first appearance in a Melbourne University's UTRC revue at the end of 1955, as the city prepared for the 1956 Olympic Games. Humphries says his creations "encourage people to look at Australia critically and with affection and humour". Humphries first performed the Edna character to a London audience in 1969 and after initial bewilderment, British audiences came to adore the antipodean house-wife parody. Humphries honed the character to satirise vices from snobbery to celebrity-worship and later succeeded in the United States. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time … the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin".Impersonators of the famous with wide followings have included Gerry Connolly, Max Gillies and Billy Birmingham. Conolly's best known impersonation is of the Queen, while Gillies has made a career out of political impersonations on programs such as The Gillies Report and Birmingham has had success sending up well-known Australian sports commentators, notably Richie Benaud and the Channel Nine cricket commentary team. The flamboyant "Bob Downe" character is a cheesy, safari-suit-wearing lounge singer and exponent of camp humour. Elliot Goblet delivers quirky deadpan stand up. Representatives of the "bawdy" strain of Australian comedy include Rodney Rude and Austen Tayshus. Tayshus' first single "Australiana" became the biggest selling single in Australian recording history. A spoken word piece, it is filled with Australian puns:
Song
has been a popular exponent of vaudeville Australian country music for several decades. His songs are peppered with Australian slang: sheilas, drongos, dills and geezers. The breakthrough hits of leading Australian country music stars Slim Dusty and John Williamson might both be considered comic novelty songs: Dusty's "Pub With No Beer" and Williamson's "Old Man Emu". Dusty's hit was the first Australian single to reach the international pop charts. It begins with mock profundity:Williamson was influenced by Australian folk-singer, artist and broadcaster Rolf Harris and his novelty hit "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport". Harris built an extraordinarily successful career in Britain as a broadcaster and entertainer. "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" is one of his many Australian themed comic hits and tells the sorry tale of a dying stockmen instructing his comrades on what to do upon his passing:
Popular novelty hits of recent decades have included The Twelfth Man 's sports commentary parody "Marvellous"; the Pauline Hanson send up "I Don't Like It" by Pauline Pantsdown; and the "bogan anthem" "Bloke" by tattooed, mulleted stand-up comic Chris Franklin.
Cinema
The cinema of Australia has a long history and Australia was a pioneer in the production of feature films. Among early hits of Australian cinema were silent classics like Raymond Longford's The Sentimental Bloke and the Cinesound series of films based on Steele Rudd's Dad and Dave characters of the 1930s. A century of Australian film was marked in 1995 with an homage remake of Steele Rudd's On Our Selection featuring Joan Sutherland and some of Australia's most acclaimed character actors: Leo McKern, Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor.Australians have a strong tradition of self-mockery in their comedy, from the outlandish Barry McKenzie expat-in-Europe movies of the 1970s, to the quirky outback characters of the Crocodile Dundee films of the 1980s and the Working Dog Productions' 1997 homage to suburbia The Castle.
Paul Hogan's Aussie bushman-in-New York/fish-out-of-water comedy romance Crocodile Dundee was a huge international hit – becoming the most successful foreign film ever released in the United States. Other than Hogan in the lead role, the film series features such veteran Australian comedic actors as John Meillon, David Gulpilil and Ernie Dingo. Australian cinema's all-time top-ten box-office hits include several other comedies: the barn yard animation Babe, directed by Chris Noonan; George Miller's animation Happy Feet ; Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge! ; Crocodile Dundee II ; Strictly Ballroom ; Rob Sitch's The Dish ; and Stephan Elliott's dragqueens-in-the-outback comedy drama The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Other successes at the Australian box office include: 1966's They're a Weird Mob; the Alvin Purple and the Barry Humphries–Bruce Beresford Barry McKenzie movies of the 1970s ; 1987's Young Einstein; 1990's The Big Steal, 1992's Spotswood 1994's Muriel's Wedding; 1994's The Sum of Us; 1999's The Craic and Nick Giannopoulos' Wog Boy comedies. Clayton Jacobson's successful 2006 comedy debut Kenny, starring Shane Jacobson followed the life of a Melbourne plumber working for a corporate bathroom rental company called Splashdown. Crackerjack is a 2002 film starring Mick Molloy and Bill Hunter in which a wisecracking layabout joins a seniors lawn bowls club to be allowed to use a free parking space and discovers a villainous plot against the club. The 2009 clay-animation black comedy Mary and Max brought together the voices of Australian comic character actors Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Toni Collette.
The 2006 comedy-drama Ten Canoes, directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, is notable for its setting in pre-European Australia.